[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 29, 2015)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E1189] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] URGING AWARD OF CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL TO PRESIDENT LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON FOR HIS EXTRAORDINARY RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE FIELD OF DOMESTIC AFFAIRS ______ HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE of texas in the house of representatives Wednesday, July 29, 2015 Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for 1 minute and revise and extend my remarks. Today I introduced legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States whose vision and leadership secured passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Social Security Amendments Act (Medicare) of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Higher Education Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. The awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal is long overdue recognition of the remarkable record of achievement in the field of domestic affairs of the person most responsible for several of the nation's landmark laws that mark their 50th anniversary this year. Mr. Speaker, as a Member of Congress from the Tenth Congressional District of Texas, as Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, Vice- President and President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson's domestic accomplishments in the fields of civil rights, education, and economic opportunity rank among the greatest achievements of the past half century. As President, Lyndon Johnson proposed, championed, led to passage, and signed into law on August 6, 1965 the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which swept away barriers impeding millions of Americans from meaningful participation in American political life. On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Social Security Amendments Act of 1965, which we today know as Medicare, which has transformed the delivery of health care in the United States and which, along with Social Security, reduced the rate of poverty among the elderly from 28.5 percent in 1966 to 9.1 percent in 2012. On July 2, 1964 President Johnson secured passage and signed into law the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations based on race, color, religion, or national origin. On November 8, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Higher Education Act, which provided need-based financial aid to students in the form of scholarships, work-study grants, and loans, and thus for the first time made higher education more accessible to populations of persons who were previously unable to attend college because of economic circumstances. On October 3, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which transformed the nation's immigration system by abolishing the racially based quota system that had defined American immigration policy for the previous four decades and replaced it with a policy whose central purpose was family reunification, with a preference for immigrants with specific skillsets. According to Robert A. Caro, the preeminent biographer of Lyndon Baines Johnson, with the single exception of Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson was the greatest champion of the poor and underprivileged in the history of the Republic and was the President ``who wrote mercy and justice into the statute books by which America was governed.'' I invite all Members to join me in sponsoring this legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal and recognizing the extraordinary domestic achievements of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States. ____________________